Method and system for a reference symbol (rs) frequency control loop for txco synchronization and tracking

ABSTRACT

Aspects of a method and system for an RS frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking may include tracking a carrier frequency in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal based on at least a reference symbol set. A receiver frequency may be adjusted based on at least the tracked carrier frequency. The carrier frequency may be tracked by generating an output signal as a function of a frequency offset Δf in a frequency discrimination feedback loop. The reference symbol (RS) set may be generated in an RS extraction module or circuit, from at least a fast Fourier transform of the received OFDM signal. The receiver frequency may be coarsely adjusted and then finely adjusted. The coarse receiver frequency adjustment may be based on processing at least a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This application makes reference to:

-   U.S. application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 18899US01),     filed on even date herewith; and -   U.S. application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 18900US01),     filed on even date herewith.

Each of the above referenced applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention relate to signal processing for communication systems. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a method and system for a reference symbol (RS) frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mobile communications have changed the way people communicate and mobile phones have been transformed from a luxury item to an essential part of every day life. The use of mobile phones is today dictated by social situations, rather than hampered by location or technology. While voice connections fulfill the basic need to communicate, and mobile voice connections continue to filter even further into the fabric of every day life, the mobile Internet is the next step in the mobile communication revolution. The mobile Internet is poised to become a common source of everyday information, and easy, versatile mobile access to this data will be taken for granted.

Third generation (3G) cellular networks have been specifically designed to fulfill these future demands of the mobile Internet. As these services grow in popularity and usage, factors such as cost efficient optimization of network capacity and quality of service (QoS) will become even more essential to cellular operators than it is today. These factors may be achieved with careful network planning and operation, improvements in transmission methods, and advances in receiver techniques. To this end, carriers need technologies that will allow them to increase throughput and, in turn, offer advanced QoS capabilities and speeds that rival those delivered by cable modem and/or DSL service providers. Recently, advances in multiple antenna technology and other physical layer technologies have started to significantly increase available communications data rates.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and/or system for a reference symbol (RS) frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating exemplary cellular multipath communication between a base station and a mobile computing terminal, in connection with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary MIMO communication system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary OFDM symbol stream, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an exemplary OFDM frequency acquisition and tracking system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary frequency acquisition and tracking process, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for a reference symbol (RS) frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking. Aspects of the method and system for an RS frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking may comprise tracking a carrier frequency in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal based on at least a reference symbol set. A receiver frequency may be adjusted based on at least the tracked carrier frequency.

The carrier frequency may be tracked by generating an output signal as a function of a frequency offset Δf in a frequency discrimination feedback loop. The reference symbol (RS) set may be generated in an RS extraction module or circuit, from at least a fast Fourier transform of the received OFDM signal. The receiver frequency may be coarsely adjusted and then finely adjusted. The coarse receiver frequency adjustment may be based on processing at least a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal. The reference symbol set may comprise a plurality of time-frequency slots. The plurality of time-frequency slots may change according to a time-frequency shift and PN sequence that may modulate the reference symbols. The PN generated sequences may be determined by base station identifier. This base station identifier may be determined by the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The OFDM signal may conform to a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standards (UMTS) long-term evolution (LTE) signal. The adjustment of the receiver frequency may be controlled via an oscillator.

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating exemplary cellular multipath communication between a base station and a mobile computing terminal, in connection with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1A, there is shown a building 140 such as a house or office, a mobile terminal 142, a factory 124, a base station 126, a car 128, and communication paths 130, 132 and 134.

The base station 126 and the mobile terminal 142 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate and process MIMO communication signals.

Wireless communications between the base station 126 and the mobile terminal 142 may take place over a wireless channel. The wireless channel may comprise a plurality of communication paths, for example, the communication paths 130, 132 and 134. The wireless channel may change dynamically as the mobile terminal 142 and/or the car 128 moves. In some cases, the mobile terminal 142 may be in line-of-sight (LOS) of the base station 126. In other instances, there may not be a direct line-of-sight between the mobile terminal 142 and the base station 126 and the radio signals may travel as reflected communication paths between the communicating entities, as illustrated by the exemplary communication paths 130, 132 and 134. The radio signals may be reflected by man-made structures like the building 140, the factory 124 or the car 128, or by natural obstacles like hills. Such a system may be referred to as a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communications system.

Signals communicated by the communication system may comprise both LOS and NLOS signal components. If a LOS signal component is present, it may be much stronger than NLOS signal components. In some communication systems, the NLOS signal components may create interference and reduce the receiver's performance. This may be referred to as multipath interference. The communication paths 130, 132 and 134, for example, may arrive with different delays at the mobile terminal 142. The communication paths 130, 132 and 134 may also be differently attenuated. In the downlink, for example, the received signal at the mobile terminal 142 may be the sum of differently attenuated communication paths 130, 132 and/or 134 that may not be synchronized and that may dynamically change. Such a channel may be referred to as a fading multipath channel. A fading multipath channel may introduce interference but it may also introduce diversity and degrees of freedom into the wireless channel. Communication systems with multiple antennas at the base station and/or at the mobile terminal, for example MIMO systems, may be particularly suited to exploit the characteristics of wireless channels and may extract large performance gains from a fading multipath channel that may result in significantly increased performance with respect to a communication system with a single antenna at the base station 126 and at the mobile terminal 142, in particular for NLOS communication systems. Furthermore, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems may be suitable for wireless systems with multipath.

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary MIMO communication system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1B, there is shown a MIMO transmitter 102 and a MIMO receiver 104, and antennas 106, 108, 110, 112, 114 and 116. The MIMO transmitter 102 may comprise a processor block 118, a memory block 120, and a signal processing block 122. The MIMO receiver 104 may comprise a processor block 124, a memory block 126, and a signal processing block 128. There is also shown a wireless channel comprising communication paths h₁₁, h₁₂, h₂₂, h₂₁, h_(2 NTX), h_(1 NTX), h_(NRX 1), h_(NRX 2), h_(NRX NTX), where h_(mn) may represent a channel coefficient from transmit antenna n to receiver antenna m. There may be N_(TX) transmitter antennas and N_(RX) receiver antennas. There is also shown transmit symbols x₁, x₂ and x_(NTX), and receive symbols y₁, y₂ and y_(NRX).

The MIMO transmitter 102 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate transmit symbols x_(i) iε{1,2, . . . N_(TX)} that may be transmitted by the transmit antennas, of which the antennas 106, 108 and 110 may be depicted in FIG. 1B. The processor block 118 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may be enabled to process signals. The memory block 120 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may be enabled to store and/or retrieve information for processing in the MIMO transmitter 102. The signal processing block 122 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to process signals, for example in accordance with one or more MIMO transmission protocols. The MIMO receiver 104 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to process the receive symbols y_(i) iε{1,2, . . . N_(RX)} that may be received by the receive antennas, of which the antennas 112, 114 and 116 may be shown in FIG. 1B. The processor block 124 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may be enabled to process signals. The memory block 126 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, and/or code that may be enabled to store and/or retrieve information for processing in the MIMO receiver 104. The signal processing block 128 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to process signals, for example in accordance with one or more MIMO protocols. An input-output relationship between the transmitted and the received signal in a MIMO system may be written as:

y=Hx+n

where y=[y₁,y₂, . . . y_(NRX)]^(T) may be a column vector with N_(RX) elements, .^(T) may denote a vector transpose, H=[h_(ij)]: iε{1,2, . . . N_(RX)}; jε{1,2, . . . N_(TX)} may be a channel matrix of dimensions N_(RX) by N_(TX), x=[x₁,x₂, . . . x_(NTX)]^(T) is a column vector with N_(TX) elements and n is a column vector of noise samples with N_(RX) elements.

The system diagram in FIG. 1B may illustrate an exemplary multi-antenna system as it may be utilized in a Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system. Over each of the N_(TX) transmit antennas, a symbol stream, for example x₁(t) over antenna 106, may be transmitted. A symbol stream, for example x₁(t), may comprise one or more symbols, wherein each symbol may be modulated onto a different sub-carrier. OFDM systems may generally use a relatively large number of subcarriers in parallel, for each symbol stream. For example, a symbol stream x₁(t) may comprise symbols on carriers f_(m): mε{1,2, . . . M}, and M may be a subset of the FFT size that may be utilized at the receiver. For instance, with FFT sizes of N, N>M and may create guard-tones that may allow utilization of variable bandwidth when deployed. The M sub-carriers may comprise a symbol stream x₁(t), for example, that may occupy a bandwidth of a few kilohertz to a few megahertz. Common bandwidth may be between 1 MHz and up to 100 MHz, for example. Thus, each symbol stream may comprise one or more sub-carriers, and for each sub-carrier a wireless channel may comprise multiple transmission paths. For example, a wireless channel h₁₂ from transmit antenna 108 to receive antenna 112, as illustrated in the figure, may be multi-dimensional. In particular, the wireless channel h₁₂ may comprise a temporal impulse response, comprising one or more multipath components. The wireless channel h₁₂ may also comprise a different temporal impulse response for each sub-carrier f_(m) of the symbol stream, for example x₂(t). Finally, the wireless channels as illustrated in FIG. 1B depict a spatial dimension of the wireless channel because the transmitted signal from each transmit antenna may be received differently at each receiver antenna. Thus, a channel impulse response may be measured and/or estimated for each sub-carrier.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary OFDM symbol stream, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown time-frequency axes 210; a symbol 0 comprising a cyclic prefix CP(0) 202 a, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) symbol less CP(0) (IFFT(0)) 202 b, and a cyclic prefix CP(0) 202 c, at frequency f1; a symbol 1 comprising a cyclic prefix CP(1) 204 a, an IFFT symbol less CP(1) (IFFT(0)) 204 b, and a cyclic prefix CP(1) 204 c, at frequency f1. The IFFT(0) 202 b and the CP(0) 202 c may together form a complete IFFT symbol for time domain symbol 0 at frequency f1. The CP(0) 202 a may be substantially similar to CP(0) 202 c. Similarly, the IFFT(1) 204 b and the CP(1) 204 c may together form a complete IFFT symbol for time domain symbol 1 at f1, and CP(1) 202 a may be substantially similar to CP(1) 202 c. Similarly, there is shown a symbol 0 comprising a cyclic prefix CP(0) 206 a, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) symbol less CP(0) (IFFT(0)) 206 b, and a cyclic prefix CP(0) 206 c, at frequency f2. There is also shown a symbol 1 comprising a cyclic prefix CP(1) 208 a, an IFFT symbol less CP(1) (IFFT(0)) 208 b, and a cyclic prefix CP(1) 208 c, at frequency f2. There is also shown an FFT input window 214 (dashed line), a guard time Δt_(g), a frequency offset Δf, and a slot marker 208. An LTE slot structure, for example, may comprise 3, 6, or 7 OFDM symbols per slot (two of which may be illustrated in FIG. 2) in the time domain.

To generate an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, an output of an IFFT comprising of IFFT(0) 202 b and CP(0) 202 c may be used to generate CP(0) 202 a from CP(0) 202 c, and append it to IFFT(0) 202 b. The cyclic prefix CP(0) 202 may be utilized to avoid inter-symbol interference at an OFDM receiver, in the presence of multi-path propagation in the wireless channel.

At an OFDM receiver, for example MIMO receiver 104, a sampled input signal may be processed for each received symbol, for example over an FFT input window 214. In order to decode the received symbols, it may be desirable that the FFT input window 214 may be located in a time domain symbol time slot, for example in time domain symbol 0. In particular, it may be desirable that the FFT input window 214 may not extend into a neighboring symbol, to avoid inter-symbol interference. Furthermore, it may be desirable that the FFT input window 214 may not overlap multiple symbols in the frequency domain. Thus, the slot marker may indicate the beginning of a slot, for example time domain symbol slot 0, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The slot marker 208 together with Δt_(g) may define the position of the FFT input window 214 within a symbol slot in the time domain. Similarly, a frequency carrier, for example f1 or f2, together with a frequency offset Δf may determine the location of the FFT input window 214 in the frequency domain. In most instances, to keep interference due to the multipath channel as low as possible at the receiver, it may be desirable to keep Δt_(g) and Δf small.

Thus, it may be desirable to acquire frequency carrier, for example f1, tracking, and maintain frequency tracking as the frequency may drift, for example, because of changes in propagation due to mobility. In some instances, this may be combined with other frequency acquisition and tracking processes. In many instances, coarse frequency synchronization via the Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and the Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) may be obtained initially. Fine frequency tracking may be acquired by a frequency acquisition and tracking system, which may exploit reference signals (RS) embedded in an OFDM signal. Reference symbols may be known symbols that may be transmitted according to a known pattern over the time, frequency and spatial resources in an OFDM system. In other words, reference symbols may be transmitted at known timing instances, on known OFDM carriers over certain antennas. By decoding and processing RS symbols, the receiver may determine correct timing and frequency information, for example, through coherent demodulation. RS symbols may be transmitted from each antenna in a multiple antenna OFDM system.

In the Enhanced Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) interface, RS symbols may be generated based on cell-specific hopping pattern, and may comprise pseudo-noise (PN) covered sequences of Reference symbols. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the RS tone spacing may be 6 carriers, per transmit antenna, for example. In accordance with various embodiments of the invention, the RS tone spacing may be 2, or 4 carriers, for example. The RS sequence may not be known to the mobile terminal (user equipment, UE) during initial acquisition, for example through the synchronization signals. In some instances, after acquiring the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS), the UE may have obtained the cell-specific hopping pattern for the RS symbols, and the PN covering sequence. This information may be used to obtain coarse frequency information. In accordance with various embodiments of the invention, the RS symbols may then be decoded in a frequency acquisition and tracking block to provide fine frequency tracking.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an exemplary OFDM frequency acquisition and tracking system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a common receiver part 342, and a frequency part 340. The frequency part 340 may comprise an RS frequency discriminator 302, an adder 304, a delay block 306, an integrator 308, and a threshold block 310. There is also shown an RS set input, an error signal f_(k), an accumulator signal ff_loop_accum, a threshold input signal, a reset control signal reset_cntrl, and an output signal txco_accum. The common receiver part 342 may comprise a timing generator 312, an RS extraction module or circuit 314, a channel estimation block 316, a receiver operations block (RXCVR) 318, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) block 320, a buffering block 330, a sampling bandwidth (BW) filter 332, an analog-to-digital block 334, a master timer 336, and a Temperature-Controlled crystal Oscillator (TCXO) 338. There is also shown an RF filter input, a master timer output, a slot timing input from PSS, an RS set output, a txco_accum signal, an rs_strb signal, and a slot_strb signal.

The frequency part 340 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to extract frequency information by processing an RS set of signals, which may generate an output txco_accum that may control the TCXO 338, for example. The RS frequency discriminator 302 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to compare the frequency of the RS set input signal with, for example, an input clock signal and may generate an error signal f_(k). The adder 304 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate a weighted sum signal at its output, from a plurality of inputs. The delay block 306 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to delay an input signal by a certain time interval, for example one or more sample periods. The delay block 306 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to delay an input signal by a certain time interval, for example one or more sample periods. The integrator 308 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate an output that may be the integration of one or more input signals, and the integrator 308 may be reset by the reset_cntrl signal. The threshold block 310 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to compare a threshold input signal with the ff_loop_accum input signal, and generate output signals reset_cntrl and txco_accum. For example, when the ff_loop_accum signal may exceed the threshold level, the reset_cntrl signal may activate and reset, for example, the integrator 308.

The common receiver part 342 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to receive radio frequency signals, and process these signals. Processing may comprise FFT computation, RS symbol extraction, channel estimation and other receiver signal processing. The timing generator 312 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate timing signals for RS extraction, rs_strb, and slot timing, slot_strb. The signal slot_strb may be used to control FFT timing in the buffering block 330, for example. The module or circuit 314 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to extract the RS symbols from the FFT module or circuit 320 output. The channel estimation module or circuit 316 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to estimate the wireless channel response for RS symbols, which may be desirable for receiver operations. The receiver operations module or circuit (RXCVR) 318 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to measure and/or verify performance during receiver operations. The fast Fourier-transform (FFT) module or circuit 320 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate a Fast Fourier Transform for an input signal. The buffering module or circuit 330 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to interface with, for example, the FFT engine. The buffering module or circuit 330 may assist in dedicated processes, measurement processes, multimedia broadcast multicast services (MBMS), and/or SSS processing for RS PN sequence determination. In some instances, each of the processes may be performed in parallel. The sample BW filter 332 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to filter the signal at its input, and generate an output signal with limited bandwidth. The analog-to-digital (A2D) module or circuit 334 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to receive an analog RF-filtered signal and convert it to a digital signal representation at the output, with an arbitrary number of bits. The master timer 336 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to provide basic timing functionality in the receiver. In some instances, the master timer 336 may count over 10 ms periods, and may be clocked at 30.72 MHz, for example. The master counter may comprise a slot counter, and a sample counter. The TXCO 338 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may be enabled to generate a variable frequency output signal, as a function of an input signal, for example a voltage.

The common receiver part 342 may receive radio frequency signals, and process these signals. Processing may comprise FFT computation, RS symbol extraction, channel estimation and other receiver signal processing. Some frequency aspects of the common receiver part 342 may be controlled by the frequency part 340. For example, the receiver subcarrier/carrier frequency, for example f1 and/or f2 as illustrated in FIG. 2, may be determined via the TXCO 338.

The RS frequency discriminator 302 may receive at its input, a set of RS symbols, which may be extracted in the RS extraction module or circuit 314 to determine frequency information about the RS carrying-carrier. The output of the RS frequency discriminator 302 may be communicatively coupled to a first input of the adder 304. A second input of the adder 304 may be coupled to the output of the delay module or circuit 306, and the output of the adder 304 may be a weighted sum of its inputs. The delay module or circuit 306 may delay an input signal by a certain time interval, for example one or more sample periods. The delay module or circuit 306 may provide appropriate delay for the feedback signal provided to the adder 304 from the integrator 308.

An output of the adder 304, ff_loop_accum, may be communicatively coupled to a first input of the threshold module or circuit 310, and a first input of the integrator 308. A second input of the threshold module or circuit 310 may be coupled to a threshold-level defining signal. The threshold module or circuit 310 may compare a threshold signal with the ff_loop_accum signal, and generate output signals reset_cntrl and txco_accum. For example, when the ff_loop_accum signal may exceed the threshold level, the reset_cntrl signal may activate and reset, for example, the integrator 308. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the txco_accum signal, may increase at a rate that is a function of Δf, and may thus allow information about Δf to be communicated to, for example, the TXCO 338, which in turn may control the FFT input window's position in the frequency domain. A second input to the integrator 308 may be set to a known, constant level, for example zero. The integrator 308 may integrate one or more input signals, and the integrator 308 may be reset by the reset_cntrl signal.

The analog-to-digital (A2D) module or circuit 334 may receive an analog RF-filtered signal and convert it to a digital signal representation at the output, with an arbitrary number of bits. The A2D 334 output may be communicatively coupled to an input of the sample BW filter 332. The sample BW filter 332 may filter the signal at its input, and generate an output signal with limited bandwidth and/or attenuate certain frequency bands. The output of the sample BW filter 332 may be communicatively coupled to a first input of the buffering module or circuit 330. A second input to the buffering module or circuit 330 may be communicatively coupled to the output signal slot_strb from the timing generator 312. The buffering module or circuit 330 may interface with, for example, the FFT engine. The buffering module or circuit 330 may assist in dedicated processes, measurement processes, multimedia broadcast multicast services (MBMS), and/or SSS processing for RS PN sequence determination. In some instances, each of the processes may be performed in parallel. The output of the buffering module or circuit 330 may be communicatively coupled to the FFT module or circuit 320.

The FFT module or circuit 320 may generate a Fast Fourier Transform for an input signal communicatively coupled from the buffering module or circuit 330. Similar to the buffering module or circuit 330, the FFT module or circuit 320 may assist in signal processing for dedicated processes, measurement processes, multimedia broadcast multicast services (MBMS), and/or SSS processing for radio time framing and hopping pattern determination. A first output of the FFT module or circuit 320 may be communicatively coupled to a first input of the RS extraction module or circuit 314. The RS extraction module or circuit 314 may extract the RS symbols from the FFT module or circuit 320 output. In some instances, it may be desirable to use a generated hopping sequence from the demodulated base station signal and/or pseudo-noise (PN) covering for RS decoding. The RS symbols extracted and output at the RS extraction module or circuit 314 may be communicatively coupled to the input of the frequency part 340, and a channel estimation module or circuit 316. The hopping pattern may be fed to the RS extraction module or circuit 314 via the rs_hopping_pattern signal on a second input, as illustrated in FIG. 3. The RS extraction module or circuit 314 timing may be controlled via a third input signal rs_strb, communicatively coupled to an output of the timing generator 312.

The timing generator 312 may generate timing signal for RS extraction, rs_strb, and slot timing, slot_strb. The signal slot_strb may be used to control FFT timing in the buffering module or circuit 330. The timing generator 312 may generate the output timing signals from a function of the master timer input signal, slot timing (PSS), for timing corrections and tracking. The master timer input signal may be communicatively coupled to the master timer 336 output. The master timer 336 may provide basic timing functionality in the receiver. In some instances, the master timer 336 may count over 10 ms periods, and may be clocked at 30.72 MHz, for example. The master counter may comprise a slot counter, and a sample counter. The input to the master timer 336 may be provided by an operating RF crystal, the temperature-controlled crystal oscillator (TXCO) 338, for example. The TXCO 338 may be communicatively coupled to the threshold module or circuit 310 via the txco_accum signal.

The channel estimation module or circuit 316 may estimate the wireless channel response for RS symbols, which may be desirable for receiver operations. The channel estimation output may be communicatively coupled to the RXCVR 318. The RXCVR 318 may measure and/or verify receiver performance functionality.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary frequency acquisition and tracking process, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. After initialization in step 402, the primary and secondary synchronization signals, PSS and SSS respectively, may be decoded in step 404. The decoding of the PSS and SSS may provide coarse frequency information for frame and slot synchronization, for example. Using the frequency information, the FFT blo module or circuit ck 320, for example, may generate an FFT of a received signal. From this FFT, the RS extraction module or circuit 314, for example, may extract an RS set in the RS extraction module or circuit 314. This RS set may be fed to the frequency part 340. In step 340, the frequency part 340 may track Δf using the feedback loop depicted in FIG. 3. Since the output signal txco_accum may be generated as a function of Δf, the txco_accum output signal from the threshold module or circuit 310 may carry information about Δf to the TXCO 338. Thus, the output signal txco_accum may enable tracking of the carrier frequency, and adjust the frequency of the receiver, for example in the master timer 336 via the TCXO 338. In step 410, the master timer 336 may adjust the frequency based on the input signal txco_accum. The adjusted and tracked frequency may be communicatively coupled to the master timer 336, so that the carrier frequency for the FFT input window 214 may be adjusted correspondingly.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a method and system for an RS frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking may comprise tracking a carrier frequency in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal based on at least a reference symbol set, as illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. A receiver frequency may be adjusted based on at least the tracked carrier frequency.

The carrier frequency may be tracked by generating an output signal as a function of a frequency offset Δf in a frequency discrimination feedback loop, for example the frequency part 340. The reference symbol (RS) set may be generated in an RS extraction module or circuit 314, from at least a fast Fourier transform of the received OFDM signal, generated in the FFT module or circuit 320, for example. The receiver frequency may be finely adjusted, whereby the receiver frequency may be adjusted coarsely prior to the fine adjustment. The coarse receiver frequency adjustment may be based on processing at least a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal, as described for FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. The reference symbol set may comprise a plurality of time-frequency slots. The plurality of time-frequency slots may change according to a time-frequency shift and pseudo-noise sequence that modulates the reference symbols. The OFDM signal may conform with a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standards (UMTS) long-term evolution (LTE) signal. The adjustment of the receiver frequency may be controlled via an oscillator, for example the TXCO 338.

Another embodiment of the invention may provide a machine-readable and/or computer-readable storage and/or medium, having stored thereon, a machine code and/or a computer program having at least one code section executable by a machine and/or a computer, thereby causing the machine and/or computer to perform the steps as described herein for a method and system for an RS frequency control loop for TXCO synchronization and tracking.

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The present invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software may be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the present context means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims. 

1. A method for processing communication signals, the method comprising: tracking a carrier frequency in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal based on at least a reference symbol set; and adjusting a receiver frequency based on at least said tracked carrier frequency.
 2. The method according to claim 1, comprising tracking said carrier frequency by generating an output signal as a function of a frequency offset Δf.
 3. The method according to claim 2, comprising generating said output signal in a frequency discrimination feedback loop.
 4. The method according to claim 1, comprising generating said reference symbol (RS) set in an RS extraction module or circuit, from at least a fast Fourier transform of said received OFDM signal.
 5. The method according to claim 1, comprising finely adjusting said receiver frequency.
 6. The method according to claim 5, comprising coarsely adjusting said receiver frequency prior to said fine adjustment.
 7. The method according to claim 6, comprising generating said coarse receiver frequency adjustment based on processing at least a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said reference symbol set comprises a plurality of time-frequency slots.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said plurality of time-frequency slots changes according to a time-frequency shift and pseudo-noise sequence that modulates said reference symbol set.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said OFDM signal conforms with a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standards (UMTS) long-term evolution (LTE) signal.
 11. The method according to claim 1, comprising controlling adjustment of said receiver frequency via an oscillator.
 12. A system for processing communication signals, the system comprising: one or more circuits in a receiver operable to, at least: track a carrier frequency in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal, wherein said tracking is based on at least a reference symbol set; and adjust a receiver frequency based on at least said tracked carrier frequency.
 13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said one or more circuits track said carrier frequency by generating an output signal as a function of a frequency offset Δf.
 14. The system according to claim 13, wherein said one or more circuits generate said output signal in a frequency discrimination feedback loop.
 15. The system according to claim 12, wherein said one or more circuits comprises an RS extraction module operable to generate said reference symbol (RS) set from at least a fast Fourier transform of said received OFDM signal.
 16. The system according to claim 12, wherein said one or more circuits finely adjust said receiver frequency.
 17. The system according to claim 16, wherein said one or more circuits coarsely adjust said receiver frequency prior to said fine adjustment.
 18. The system according to claim 17, wherein said one or more circuits generate said coarse receiver frequency adjustment based on processing at least a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal.
 19. The system according to claim 12, wherein said reference symbol set comprises a plurality of time-frequency slots.
 20. The system according to claim 19, wherein said plurality of time-frequency slots changes according to a time-frequency shift and pseudo-noise sequence that modulates said reference symbol set.
 21. The system according to claim 12, wherein said OFDM signal conforms with a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standards (UMTS) long-term evolution (LTE) signal.
 22. The system according to claim 12, wherein said one or more circuits comprises and oscillator operable to control adjustment of said receiver frequency. 